Once again, I’ve said ‘no’ to an invitation to represent Team USA at the UCI Gravel World Championships. Instead, I’m focusing on the final two events of the Life Time Grand Prix (LTGP).
For many US gravel pros, the choice between the UCI Gravel World Championships and the LTGP isn’t just about prestige. It’s a question of logistics, money, and career sustainability.
The calendar
First things first. The timing of UCI Worlds is incredibly inconvenient for LTGP riders. This year’s UCI Gravel World Championships were initially planned for Nice, France, on October 18-19, which conflicted with Big Sugar Gravel, the LTGP series finale and mandatory tiebreaker for overall prize money eligibility. Nice pulled out in the spring and was replaced by Zuid-Limburg region of the Netherlands, October 11 and 12. The revised dates, just a week earlier, still conflict with LTGP, now in discord with Little Sugar MTB, which shares the same weekend as UCI Worlds.
It’s not just a schedule conflict for many elite riders, but a conflict for earning opportunities. A significant number of pro riders plan to participate in the Little and Big Sugar races, offering $30,000, split evenly among men and women, per race. The top 10 in the LTGP men’s and women’s competition will share a $200,000 prize purse after Big Sugar.
I won’t be racing Little Sugar MTB this year, but I wondered if it would be wise to fly overseas for the UCI World Champs, then scramble back to Bentonville, Arkansas, and try to prepare for a brand-new Big Sugar Gravel course? That’s not a recipe for success.
Big Sugar is high stakes. The course is entirely different from years past, and I want to ride…
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